A portable device, such as a mobile phone or computer device, may utilize a large amount of power to display a high-quality, full color image. Generally, display technologies either directly generate various colors, such as an OLED display, or use white light through a gating structure, such as through LCD panel cells underneath a color element or color filter, to generate an image. An exception is DLP projection displays that generate various colors utilizing a moving color wheel and fast moving mirrors at a very high refresh rate to avoid color break-up (CBU) which is perceived as image distortion. Other display technologies have attempted to implement high-speed gating techniques with high refresh rates, such as with an LCD panel, without color filters and using sidelit or backlit sets of color LEDs.
Field sequential color (FSC) displays have advantages over traditional LCD displays, or other gated display technologies. An FSC display can operate with less power consumption since up to 70% of lamination can be lost in color filters when converting white light to various primary colors. An FSC display does not use sub-pixels for color generation, and a single pixel structure with a larger aperture provides for increased transmissivity, resulting in further power reductions. However, with an FSC LCD panel, power consumption to drive each of the LEDs and a display controller is higher due to the high-frequency updates that are needed to avoid a user perceiving inter-frame temporal changes.